Tag: southern suburbs minneapolis

brown horse Savage MN – a bit of a secret on the south side…
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Savage MN – a bit of a secret on the south side…

MaryLeave a comment

Check out my video if you want an “in-person” look…

The city of Savage wasn’t named for anything terrifying – it’s actually named after Marion Willis Savage. Marion Savage owned the champion race horse  “Dan Patch” in the early 1900’s and if you live in or move to MN you will likely hear that name from time to time.  If you know the origins you’ll be ahead of nearly 90% of the people that live there! You’re welcome!

There is a street on the State Fair grounds named after the horse and Prior Lake HS (which serves kids from Savage) named their football stadium after the horse as well. 

harnessmuseum.com

Savage is what I would consider a bedroom community (if you haven’t heard that term before it simply means a place that people live but don’t work there).

I stopped into the library to check it out and while I was in there I spoke with the librarian to see if I was missing something – a central downtown that I had somehow overlooked?? The librarian agreed with me that Savage is really a community that just grew up in the farm fields as the area near Minneapolis developed rather than growing up around a central downtown.

“City center”

Location and commute times.

So Savage is by definition, NOT a walkable community, cars will be a major part of your life in Savage. 

Instead of a downtown area, there is one central point that I would consider the “civic center” of Savage. You’ll find the Savage library (which is large, modern and pretty – it seems like an enjoyable place to spend some time), the town hall, the post office,& the police and fire stations all in this one area.

A bonus that I noticed when looking at their web site, the city offers free notary services to residents. That could be your tipping point when weighing your options! 

Housing

Before I ventured out to Savage I looked at the homes listed in the MLS to get a sense of the range and what types were available for sale right now – there are some really beautiful townhomes that are in the low to mid $200’s, and prices go up to the mid $700’s for homes. The most expensive listing right now in Savage is for the remnants of a farm and will likely be sold for land development at close to $1M. 

Single family home prices in Savage Sept 2021
Median price for townhomes in Savage September 2021
I added this because I think there is good value in moderately sized homes.

Shopping

Shopping in Savage is limited to a few smaller shopping centers as compared to nearby Burnsville which has an abundance of stores, shopping centers, chain restaurants and a mall.  If you live in Savage you’re likely to get your groceries at the Super Target, the HyVee or Cub Foods. If you like Costco like I like Costco, rest assured that there is one Savage adjacent in Burnsville. 

Savage is mainly residential but there is a LOT of shopping in Burnsville!

Schools

Savage is served by 3 different school districts, so again, this is a case where if you have a preference for a particular school district you should verify the school boundaries and that your home lies within the district that you want to have.  The three districts that serve Savage are:

  • Prior Lake – Savage district 719
  • Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district 191
  • Shakopee District 720. 

There are 6 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 1 high school serving Savage.  In addition, Savage has a Spanish immersion school, an alternative school, and 2 early learner schools. 

Parks

black and brown miniature schnauzer lying on green grass field
Photo by Sebastian Coman Travel on Pexels.com

Savage does have a few parks, and I think that there are often play lots for kids in the subdivisions, but they may lean heavily on the regional park that borders the south side of the city – Murphy-Hanrehan Park.

It’s a very large park and it made me think a bit of my other favorite regional Park – Lebanon Hills in Eagan. The Park offers a LOT of activities – Boating, Camping, Single Track Mountain Biking, Fishing, Hiking, Snowshoeing, Snow Mobiling, x-ctry Ski Trails, and 2 off leash dog parks – you can buy a day or an annual pass for the dog parks.  One of the dog parks at Cleary Lake allows the pups to go for a swim. Savage does have one other dog park (I believe this one is part of the Savage Park district rather than the regional park, but it is Free. 

Unlike other suburbs, Savage doesn’t have an aquatic center or anything like that, but they have a partnership with LifeTime Fitness for use of their indoor and outdoor pools. 

Property Taxes

For this one I will defer to the Scott County MN web site because property taxes in Savage vary by which school district the home is in and the value of the home. So you can get an estimated rate quite easily on their site if you are curious as to how they vary. 

Fences, Chickens and BEES

And to answer my always asked questions: YES you CAN have a fence! The city regulates the type, workmanship and height depending on where it will be on your property, so you’ll have to check that out.  Also – YES – you can have YARD BIRDS.  Chickens and BEEKEEPING are allowed. 

Savage is a great place to consider if you want a quieter lifestyle & don’t particularly care if the city provides a bunch of amenities which you may be able to easily access in nearby communities.  If you want a relatively easy commute to either Minneapolis or St. Paul, or need to be able to get to the airport without a lot of hassle, this is a good option. Home prices in Savage are more affordable in pockets than they are in other parts of the metro and may be a good place to look if you are a first time buyer or if you just don’t have thee budget to live in other more expensive areas of the city. 

Woodbury – One of Money.com’s “Best Places to Live” 2020
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Woodbury – One of Money.com’s “Best Places to Live” 2020

MaryLeave a comment

How will you decide where to live if you want to live in a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul? When we moved here a friend who grew up here said that most people choose which side of “the river” to live on based on which side they work on. “The river” is the Mississippi which is the dividing line for much of the way through Minneapolis and St. Paul. I suppose that rule holds true for the suburbs as well, although with the fact that so many more people are working from home now, options may be more open.

If you’re partial to St. Paul, or need to be in Wisconsin for any reason, but still want to be in the twin cities ‘burbs, then you might consider Woodbury.

Money.com thinks Woodbury is one of the best places to live in 2020… here are a few reasons why (with creative license to add my own reasons too!):

Schools. Woodbury’s schools are consistently ranked on top 10 lists for best schools in MN. The schools are part of South Washington County School District and public schools consist of six elementary schools, two junior high and two senior high schools. Woodbury also has two charter schools and two parochial schools if you are looking for other options.

Employment / unemployment. Even now when the entire country is experiencing high unemployment rates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Minnesota’s unemployment rate (7.4%) is lower than the national average (8.4%), which is typical for Minnesota, and Woodbury’s unemployment rate (6.2%) is even lower than that.

Where do people work? Big employers in or near Woodbury are 3M (the post-it note people among other things), the Target distribution center, HealthPartners Insurance, and Self-Esteem Brands – aka Anytime Fitness/ BaseCamp etc. Of course just about everything in the Twin Cities is no more than about a 30 minute drive, so if the commute isn’t a big thing, living here and working on the other side of the city would not be uncommon.

Shopping. Woodbury has everything you could want in the way of shopping! I did a video on grocery stores a couple of weeks ago and Woodbury has pretty much every one of them – Costco (brand new!), Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Cub, Lund’s, Kowalski’s. They have 3 main shopping areas – Tamarack Village is enormous and has several large anchor stores like Home Depot, Old Navy, JoAnn’s etc. Woodbury Village is a little smaller with Kohls, Target, Total Wine and many smaller shops. The last shopping center, Woodbury Lakes, is the most charming – it’s set up to give you the feel of a walkable shopping area rather than a particular store that you would park directly in front of, they even have a “walking club” that meets there once a week.

Even though they have these shopping areas Woodbury isn’t what I would consider a walkable city. You definitely need a car to get around.

The most exciting thing about Woodbury (to me!!) is that they are the home to one of a very few locations of the amazing Chicago restaurant – Portillos. 🙂 You may know that Chicago is famous for their hotdogs and all the “weird” stuff they put on them – mustard, NEVER EVER ketchup!!, hot peppers, a tomato, pickle, celery salt. YUM. Portillo’s says they are about hotdogs, but what they are REALLY about is the Italian Beef sandwich, chocolate cake, and milk shakes. You can trust me when I tell you to give these a try. I like my Italian beef with some “sauce”, hot & sweet peppers. It’s super messy and delicious. Having Portillo’s here in the Twin Cities makes me ever so slightly less homesick for Chicago. Do not eat here if calories give you fits.

Parks. Within Woodbury itself are 3000 acres of park land and 140 miles of trails! Carver Lake Park has a public beach for summer fun and if you want to get in touch with nature a little more, head to Tamarack Nature Preserve. We all know winter can be tough if you’re trapped inside especially with little kids, but Woodbury has created what they call “Central Park” which is an INDOOR park and playground to give the kids a place to run off their energy, and parents a place to stay warm while they do it. Another benefit of Central Park is that the park connects to the Washington County Library and the YMCA – so you could make an entire afternoon of it and still be indoors.

Even if you don’t live in Woodbury there may be a good chance that you’ll use their premiere sports complex called HealthEast Sports Center – it is a MASSIVE sports complex with indoor and outdoor sports fields and if you are going there to watch games in the summer and have little kids to keep entertained, they have a splash pad right on site.

Housing.

Woodbury has a wide variety of housing, from townhouses to “quad homes” which are pretty interesting, a lot of typical subdivisions and several areas with custom homes. In addition to these rather typical suburban home choices, Woodbury is not completely built out yet and there are open farm fields in between the neighborhoods as well as some homes that sit on very large private lots, with no HOA. Not everyone loves a planned community and you can live in Woodbury without that if you like.

Home prices in Woodbury range from about $200K for a townhouse, all the way up to just under $1M for a custom built home. The median home price in Woodbury today is $430K.

mschumann@kw.com
612-234-5703

Wildflower neighborhood ~ Eagan
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Wildflower neighborhood ~ Eagan

MaryLeave a comment

I have previously expressed my lack of enthusiasm for cookie cutter neighborhoods. This one isn’t QUITE as unique as Cobblestone Lake (see my last post), but it definitely has it’s charms.

It’s a small neighborhood right near the most beautiful park in this part of the metro area – Lebanon Hills. I feel like I sing the praises of Lebanon Hills every other video / post at this point – but it’s a really nice park! I like parks, sue me.

The homes are all a similar style – 3 or 4 level splits, but the neighborhood is established enough to have mature trees, and people have lived in the homes long enough to have made changes to them.

I also didn’t think I loved split level homes, but it turns out I love THESE split level homes! I’ve been in two of them recently with clients, and both had the same kind of cozy feel – not necessarily SMALL, but because of the nature of the 4 level split it has a smaller footprint and goes up one level, and down TWO levels. They seem to go on and on. I’m one of the rare breed (or silent majority?) that likes a home with WALLS. I’m not opposed to a certain level of openness, and I think high ceilings add a lot (these have them!), but when you have more than one person living in a house, it’s nice to have a separate space that isn’t a bedroom that you can go to and still be OF the house but not necessarily right in the mix. If you’re living in MN, you will also appreciate that they all seemed to have fireplaces for winter coziness and beautiful back yard landscaping – either a deck or a patio – to enjoy the summer and fall.

The neighborhood has a really interesting layout – every street is a cul-de-sac! Until I had a kid I didn’t realize exactly how much I would like a cul-de-sac. The only traffic on any one of the short streets has a purpose for being there, there aren’t ANY cars using the neighborhood as a shortcut and there is only one way in or out, and that way has a bike/walking trail running right down the middle of it.

One of the homes we looked at backed up to the shopping area on this map – at first it was a little startling and we thought possibly not a great idea, but who hasn’t been one ingredient short when making dinner? it was quiet, and the walking/bike path continues from the entrance to the neighborhood on Lexington Pointe Parkway straight back to the shopping area. If you feel like heading over to the Eagan Arms Public House or Theresa’s Mexican restaurant – easy peasy!

If you have kiddos, they can take that same path over to Northview Elementary or Dakota Hills Middle School. Both have “A” grades on Niche.com.

Last but not least – it was apparent that this neighborhood had an active HOA. While it didn’t seem to revolve around ridiculous rules about the color of your curtains, the fees paid in went to maintaining the beauty of the neighborhood – either the abundant gardens lining the entry to the neighborhood, or the neighborhood mailboxes.

The three times I was in the neighborhood I saw people out walking and enjoying time with their neighbors. It just felt like a really welcoming little community.

Right now, single family homes in Eagan have a median home price of $341,000. They spend very little time on the market and they get at least 100% of their asking price.

Have a question about a particular suburb or neighborhood? Let me know!

mschumann@kw.com
612-234-5703